Frugality is the mental approach we each take when considering our resource allocations. It includes time, money, convenience, and many other factors. The purpose of r/frugal is to share what we have each learned. Let's all work together to keep r/frugal on-topic, friendly, honest and helpful.

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If you are a Prime subscriber, you may experience that their shipments don't always reach you at their guaranteed deadline. This happens to me about once a month, and so I either give them a call or will reach them via chat to let them know they did not uphold their end of the Prime deal. They are always very courteous and will be responsive to you. Here is my conversation with them this morning.

I've done this every month since August and receive one of three benefits every time. I either get a 5 dollar credit, a 10 dollar credit, or a one-month Prime extension for free ($6.67 value).

edit: I am seeing a lot blow-back, but I don't mind coming off as an asshole for doing this. I feel that if Amazon displays a guaranteed delivery date at the checkout page, they are obligated to that date, regardless of shipper error. I feel any guarantee should be taken literally, so I will continue to ask for compensation as long as their Prime subscription is $80.

A guy I worked with ordered a grill off amazon last summer. It was listed as prime eligible, and set for two day delivery. Turns out that was due to a mistake on Amazon's part, and it should never have been listed that way. It ended up coming in two days late.

They ended up refunding him $100, and sent him a free cover for the grill that was listed at $45. Amazon is very good about customer service when they miss their deadlines.

Yep. I ordered a cheaper CPU off of Amazon for a new computer build and they accidentally sent me two. Double checked all my statements to make sure I didn't get charged twice, then emailed them about it. They told me they appreciated the heads up and that I could keep it and do what I wanted with it. Gonna sell it on Ebay.

There are trustworthy articles about it online, and I suggest that anyone interested in the matter read up. I've read one article written by a journalist who worked there, and another talked to local doctors about all the heat stroke patients coming in from the wharehouses in the summer.

I watched some documentary about it. People complained they were treated like robots but they weren't treated terrible. I'm sure people in China would laugh at them. One person said they wanted to work there because they knew they'd be walking over ten miles per day. They lost more than 50 pounds in a year.

I work in one of their warehouses and even in autumn I could comfortably work (walking at a brisk pace for up to 5-10 mins) in a jacket. Our building is climate controlled, it may be an individual building thing but you would have to try to have a heat stroke. There are fans all over the ceiling that are the size of my room.

Eh. I dunno. I've been with thwm only 6 months. The work is warehouse work so It's hard. You're held to expectations, given a learning curve to learn a process. They don't really treat us bad where im at. I've heard the same from my manager who has been with them since 1999. It depends on th GM of the building. Some have music while they work.

I have a friend who lives in Seattle and works for Amazon in their corporate offices. She is burned out after one year and will be getting a new job. They make her work very long hours. Even on days off, she is required to be on a teleconference early in the morning. Very high stress working environment. She gets paid a decent wage, but she really doesn't have a life. She would prefer to work in a lower stress environment for less pay.

This happens a lot with other companies as well. If the item is not worth the price to pickup and restock or whatever, they'll tell you "dispose" of it. I work in purchasing and have this happen especially with low dollar office supplies.

There is a law (http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0181-unordered-merchandise) that says you are entitled to keep extra items that a company ships to you, with the intent being that if you weren't entitled to them, then shady companies could ship you extra things you didn't order, charging you double (or more) in the process and threatening to ding your credit rating.

I got a kindle a year ago for Christmas and cracked the screen within a month. I contacted Amazon's service and they shipped me a new Kindle free of charge, all I had to do was put the old one in the box that the new one came in. I didn't even have to pay for postage.

I have a Kindle 2 (Kindle Keyboard is the new name) and it was out of warranty and I was having battery issues. I figured being it was an older device the battery was just shot (turns out the wifi was just nuking my battery for some reason). I had looked for replacement batteries and didn't have much luck so I contacted Amazon asking them for the price to replace the battery. They told me they don't do battery replacements on that model and I was furious, I asked what I was to do, just replace the whole device? Their response was to just send it to them and they'd replace the whole device for free, even out of warranty. I was really impressed.

Yeah gotta love amazon customer service. They posted something to me and it never came. I can't be sure but I think it must have been either the delivery guys posting throughout the wrong letter box or possibly someone stealing it this end (I have a communal locked mail box). Either way when I told amazon I hadn't recieved it they gave a full refund. I almost feel bad because although it wasn't really my fault, it almost certainly wasn't theirs either.

Yep! I ordered something from a 3rd party seller via amazon and when it arrived it was the item's box... Just an empty, slightly torn box, no item inside. When I called amazon I felt like there was no way they'd believe me. I mean that sounds like a total scam, trying to return the box for an item but not the item itself. But the guy was really nice about it, refunded my purchase, and sent me all the stuff to ship it back to return it.

They don't need to mess up. I bought a tv stand and checked a few weeks later. It was 40$ cheaper. I IM'd some guy and explained and they gave me the difference, no questions asked. Great customer service.

Indeed. I've noticed in the past few months that more and more of my shipments are coming via "SurePost". It's an asinine scheme where the package starts with UPS, then they hand it off to USPS where it completely vanishes for several days.

Every time I've had a late delivery, it's been because the package came to within 10 miles of my house, then the postal service decided to sit on it for like 3 days. I complain to Amazon every time and explain that they can't use the shittiest shipping you can possibly get, and still expect to meet their delivery guarantees. So far I've gained 3 free months of Prime.

SmartPost is evil. There is no tracking, the tracking is sometimes an outright LIE and it's never delivered on time. I had a package this past week that was 'out for delivery' on Wednesday but 'at the sorting facility' on Thursday, how is that even possible?

I've taken to voicing my displeasure on every one of these late shipments as well.

I worked at a SmartPost warehouse for about 7 months. It's not that the tracking is a lie, but that the level of service absolutely fucking blows. I quit from SmartPost because of how badly we had to treat people's packages to meet both quotas and stacking efficiency.

Now, literally any time something is shipped to me via SmartPost, I refuse delivery and assume it was damaged during shipping. I'd bet my own life that you'd do the same if you had worked there.

They stopped giving stuff to surepost last year for us, thank god. Stuff was being delayed by up to 5 days, and every time we raised a stink with amazon. We pay $80 a year for their service, I don't think it's unreasonable to hold them to one of the key promises.

In California they often use OnTrac , which is terrible. I would say 30% of my packages through them are late. Even had a couple that were lost. I would pay an extra $10-20 for Prime if I could choose my preferred carrier.

It works in 99% of the places they use it. They only do SmartPost if they know they can put the package in your local sorting facility on time, so it'll get to you in your 2-day window.

The problem is that, as you say, there's no service guarantee on SmartPost on the post office's end. While they have the package and could just give it to you, if your local mail carrier's golf-cart-sized truck is full, he's allowed to leave those packages behind for a future trip. If he's got a lot of packages for 3 days, you might not get yours for 3 days even though it's been in your town the whole time.

Ug, Mail Innovations is the devil! They recently passed off 2 of my packages from UPS to USPS and they disappeared for 7 days before finally being delivered. Plus, if you call UPS, they insist they don't know where the package is because USPS has it, and if you call USPS, they insist that UPS hasn't handed it over yet.

Yep -- I am losing faith big-time, as I live in Brooklyn and the USPS is absolutely worthless. There's no way I can pick up a package at the post office, given my (normal!) work schedule and their (terrible!) hours. UPS, on the other hand, is great about leaving packages in discreet locations on the stoop, and I've never had anything stolen.

Me too. But during holidays, I can be lax about it. It's not really Amazon's fault, they're not the company carrying the shipped items. They have contracts with the shipping companies, and just ship with who promises to get it there the quickest. In my area, that's UPS.

My town is at the end of our UPS guy's(that I actually know personally)massive rural route. Sometimes he wouldn't get to my little town until 9 at night, after having started at 7am. It's not his fault that his work load more than quadrupled, and he got it here, no matter how late he had to stay out.

The one thing I don't see mentioned here is that Amazon sometimes chooses to ship Prime items with companies other than UPS ad Fedex to save money. Which is great, except it doesn't always work. The one I hear the most complaints about is called "Prestige". Over half the time one of my Prime orders is shipped via Prestige, it's late and the tracking info is inaccurate. The tracking info will say it's been delivered, even though it's actually being delivered the next day. This is either a serious error with Prestige's tracking info, or Prestige is falsifying tracking info to make it appear to Amazon that they're fulfilling their end of the contract. If I don't let Amazon know of my shipping issues with Prestige, they won't know about them. I usually get a $10 credit or another one of the same item re-shipped with one-day shipping.

I don't mind when they ship with the small couriers because they always say it'll take 5 or so days and I have it the next day or the day after.

What blew my mind was the same day shipping. I ordered something by 9AM and it was on my doorstep before 5pm. I couldn't believe it.

We were doing a garage sale one day when we had diapers delivered and the guy stopped and looked around. He bought those portable bed rails, you know for small kids you stick between the mattress? I think we just gave them to him. Never hurts to tip your service guys lol.

I have also had problems with LaserShip. Their tracking said that the item was "Delivered", but it was no where to be found. They did deliver it the next morning and I asked the guy if he tried to deliver it the day before and he said "Nope, I didn't have time". I wasn't mad about it since the item wasn't needed urgently and I have Prime so I didn't have to pay extra. Now that you mention the Amazon guarantee, I should have let Amazon know...

ONTRAC is the garbage carrier of the west coast, everything they've ever shipped has been late..worse yet they report it as delivered on time (I've had it reported 15 minutes before due date when in reality it wasn't delivered until the next day)

I guess YMMV with ONTRAC. I've never had a late package from them, have often gotten things delivered overnight (even a PC case from over 300 miles away) on basic shipping, and they delivered before 3pm every time.

It's not really Amazon's fault, they're not the company carrying the shipped items

True, but it's a guarantee that they use to take in a ton of profit. Guarantees aren't about perfect adherence, but about being willing to make amends when adherence fails (and designing that into your bottom line).

If I strike a deal with the police to actively protect any car with a "protected by the cops" bumper sticker that I sell, and I guarantee police will prevent any theft...and once in a while that fails..I am responsible... but my bumper stickers are probably priced accordingly.

Should Amazon consistently fail, they need to either renegotiate their contract with shippers, or remove the guarantee.

Don't get me wrong, I don't have any issues with Amazon, especially because they seem very willing and quick to comp shipping timeline failures.

They gave me a $20 credit to my account for a $3 item that arrived a day late. I didn't even ask, they just sent an e-mail stating the item won't make it and they credited me $20 for the inconvenience.

If they send it using the 2 day service level from ups then ups has guaranteed them as the shipper that it will be delivered within 2 days. If it doesn't, then the shipper is eligible for a refund. So don't feel bad about amazon paying the customer a refund even if it wasn't their fault because they are eligible for a refund themselves in that case. In the case of Amazon, they are ups' s biggest customer and have a massive contract. I doubt they file claims on each individual late package, but still that sort of thing is taken into account when they negotiate their much reduced shipping costs owing to their high volume.

I've never ordered anthing with 2 day shipping, so I don't know for sure what service level Amazon actually puts on their shipping. It may be that they ship using ups ground instead of 2 day in some cases because if it isn't going too far, it will make it in 2 days anyway and costs less to ship. The difference though is ups doesn't offer any guarantee that it will make it in 2 days if it is shipped ground. So while it will normally make it in 2 days if it isn't going too far, if it doesn't for some reason, there is no refund. In that case though, it's still on Amazon to uphold promises they made to the customer but didn't ensure with the shipper.

It's not a matter of negotiation. UPS and FedEx guarantee delivery for "air" packages (i.e. 1 day, 2 day, or 3 day), so if you ship it 2 days, and it gets there in 3, you don't have to pay the carrier. That said, around Christmas time neither carrier honors that deal, solely because volume is too high, and they'd lose their shorts. Now, I'm sure Amazon does a shit-tonne of volume with UPS, even so, I doubt it's enough for UPS to waive their "no guarantees at Christmas" policy.
That's also why Amazon has no problems giving a refund if it's late, because they don't have to pay the carrier for that package.

I wouldn't exactly feel sorry for them, and say it's not their fault. Technically you're right, but that's like saying it wasn't Walmart's fault that a customer got nearly trampled to death on Black Friday. They promoted a situation, encourage it to get worse, and then when it got out of their control, tried to say, "I didn't know it would be this bad..." They knew it how bad it would get, and used a cost analysis on how much it would cost them to do a reimbursement vs enforcing a halt on 2-day guaranteed shipping. They have an amazing amount of data in their hands, and know how to interpret it. For a company that has to rely on shipping so much, I wouldn't be surprised that they had known the specific stress levels on the USPS, FedEx, and UPS way beforehand, and incorporated that into their data.

You don't think they have reports and data telling them what's happening, consultants advising them how to improve last years sales? Dude, they have corporate minded sociologists consultants guiding their promotions team, telling them how we think, and how much they should prod us if we want to buy something. At the risk of being labeled a conspiracy theorist, (because I cant find the data) I read that there are more commercials being selectively target at viewers (mainly on the internet) that only you'll see, while your spouse may never get the chance to. The most promising corporate career right now are sociologists...think about it.

Edit: I still shop at Amazon, not dismayed enough to stop because they at least make a quality effort to make it up to you when they fall short.

I ordered something for Halloween and it never arrived. It says it was delivered on their side, but it wasn't. I never mentioned it because I was so busy with other things. Would they still honor it, you think?

What amazed me around christmas time was that I ordered Cards Against Humanity for my sister on December 19th on Amazon. It actually worked out to be $15 cheaper on Amazon than straight from CAH because CAH was automatically charging $15 shipping to ensure the package made it there for christmas, no other shipping options.
Anways, off Amazon I just used the regular Amazon Super Shipping and completely expected the gift to be late. December 19 was a thursday, and CAH was delivered to me on Monday December 23.

My best example of this is when I purchased a Weber grill this past summer. The grill said it was a Prime item but at checkout it became clear that this would be shipped by a freight company and would take longer than two days. No big deal, until the freight company delivered four days later than they were supposed to.

Even though it wasn't Amazon's fault, they refunded me the shipping cost (which I hadn't paid for to begin with) and took $70 off the price of my grill. Amazon customer for life.

Not only that, but I'm sure Amazon as a company wants to know what is and isn't working for them. They may be testing out a new carrier, and the feedback could be a determining factor as to if they continue using them.

Same. To me, it evens out. And even if it does arrive a day late, it really doesn't hurt me so why should I care? We pay for Prime for the Kindle downloads (my husband reads A LOT) and for the guarantee of getting our items quickly as opposed to a week+ later. 2 or 3 days, doesn't matter. To me, fast is fast!

I had this happen a few weeks ago. They ran out of an item they said they had a few of when I ordered it. They kept pushing back the shipment date without just acknowledging that they had run out.

I talked to a CSR and they first offered me a $15 credit to cover shipping through another vendor. I told them that this whole thing was making me reconsider renewing my Prime membership... and they refunded my ENTIRE membership for the year (which started last May) and allowed me to keep the rest of the year.

I will say this about Amazon Prime: We've had it for about 2 months and so far their customer service is GREAT.

How great? We streamed a movie through through Prime a few weeks ago. It was a paid download, it cost like $4. The playback was jerky at points, which was annoying, but not so bad that we did anything about it. A few days later, my wife got an email from them stating "We see that there was a playback problem. Here's a refund. Sorry!" We didn't even have to contact them to get a refund.

People like to complain when companies screw up, but Amazon is doing fine as far as I'm concerned. That $4 refund bought them all kinds of good word-of-mouth from us.

I agree with you that Amazon's Customer Service has been excellent. My only complaint is the people they ship with suck. Any complaints I have made, with exception to 1, were always met with courteous and prompt solutions. There are a LOT of retailers that could take a page from their book in that department.

I buy a lot of things on Amazon. Some things, I don't care if they miss the 2 day window to get it to me. Other things that most people would buy at a store, but that I'm buying online I kind of need them when you said you would get them to me. Fun examples are: toilet paper, some car tools and gifts.

If you don't hit your SLA, you're not fulfilling your end of the contract. Plain and simple. Asking for compensation for that is not a dick move.

Recently I ordered a text book that was supposed to come with a serial number so I could utilize the publisher's additional web material. It was missing. I discovered this the day the semester started.

I chatted Amazon about it. The rep found the publisher's website, found out you could buy the pass separately and then refunded me for the amount the pass was.

The problem was immediately rectified without having to ship it back. Super helpful.

CSR here. We're not told to apply anything liberally. If a customer is upset and you think you can deescalate the situation pretty quickly, there are a couple of things you can do within certain guidelines but, for most things that people expect (money, free time, etc.) you have to reach out to a manager, which gets tracked on your record. If you contact your manager too often to do these things they'll ask you to only try to do those things if the customer gets escalated (angry) or threatening.

Having a steady job is pretty dang amazing, I'm not going to lie. Having to deal with extremely angry people a lot during the day isn't quite as fun, but I put up with it because I need to pay the bills and pay for prescriptions and stuff.

The best thing you can do is to ask nicely, state what you want, and I'll see what I can do. If there isn't anything I can do without contacting a manager and I haven't had to call a ton lately I'll check with them for you. If I say "I'm sorry, but this is the most I can do" you can politely ask me to either ask a manager myself or you can politely ask to speak with a supervisor and we can see what else we can do. Sometimes it's a lot more and sometimes it's nothing more, depending on the situation. Just remember that, contrary to popular belief, screaming into the phone does not get you as far as being polite and kind in most circumstances. I've had angry people ask for ridiculous things, and I'll put them on hold, speak briefly to my manager, explain that they're being a Grumpy Gills and unreasonable, and they'll do a bit more, but if you're nice I'll play up the situation and work at it for you, and you can get a bigger amount of reimbursement/free time/commemorative pen/whatever companies give out (I'm doing my best to not reveal which company I work for, as that would kind of be a problem with my NDA).

I made a mistake with Amazon Prime a few months ago. I ordered a mattress with 2day shipping to have delivered to my new address. I fucked up and accidentally sent it to the old one. I tried to change it and I couldn't so I called customer service. They changed it for me but because it was past a certain time, 5pm? It wouldn't be delivered for almost a week because of labor day and the weekend. I explained that I needed it before a week was up otherwise I'd have nowhere to sleep-didn't have a couch yet either. She switched it to 1 day shipping so I'd have it the next day.

I didn't throw a fit or yell at her, I was just upset by the situation. I know that couldn't have been cheap for them to do that, but it's just made me a better customer because their customer service is great. I still feel a little guilty by that because it was my fuck up.

I placed an order that was guaranteed delivery two days before Christmas. It never shipped, so it never arrived. The next day, I got a CSR to kick me a $10 credit, extend my prime by a month, and upgrade my reorder to 1 day shipping. I received a guaranteed delivery email for the following Friday.

Friday came and went. I checked on the package and it was moved to the following Tuesday for delivery.

I contacted them again, and this time got a $30 credit and extended my prime by 3 months. Two problems, same order. It took about 2 weeks to get this damn package, but their customer service made me happy.

On a side note, this is the only time I've had a problem with their delivery (the CSR and I laughed about it), and I've had prime for about 3 years.

That wording is for when products have ESTIMATED delivery dates, such as a lot of the products that are only sold through amazon and shipped by a third party. Prime products say right on the product page Guaranteed Delivery Date.

Yeah I definitely agree that it's a strange thing to guarantee but I'm sure they've got all sorts of algorithms on their end for when to and not to promise deliveries by current shipping loads, weather patterns, etc. to make sure it stays profitable.

I read recently that they're building plans to start sending items out to localized delivery hubs before they're even ordered based on market trends in order to start doing same-day/one-day shipping more often. I can't even fathom the powerful data infrastructure they've got over there.

Amazon is like that friend that I know is trying so hard, but sometimes gets a little flustered, feels terrible about being late, and tries it's best to make it up to me..

they're losing some serious cash, but also trying to offer a great service, and sometimes it works, but sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it takes a few extra days, but every time I talk to customer service, I can tell they were trying..

I just want to give Amazon a big hug, say thank you, and let them know it will be okay..

Prime is so awesome, and have only had one instance where it didn't come in two days. I've also had a few instances where it arrived next day..

I love Amazon, and because they are trying their hardest, and often succeed, I will stay loyal

They have protocol on place to deal with such things for a reason. They want you to be happy with their service. If you're late on a bill because your employer was late in paying you, your creditors don't care why you were late. No reason why companies shouldn't also be held to their agreements. Especially when it's a service you pay for. 2 day shipping isn't a bonus or a gift. That's why you pay the fee upfront. Mistakes happen, and there's no reason to be angry with then over it, but there's also no reason why you shouldn't get what you pay for.

I don't think you're an asshole for holding them to their promise. I do, however, have a problem with the way some people treat lifetime guarantees.

Specifically, my sister is an abuser of lifetime guarantees. My sister and I grew up 3 miles from the original L.L. Bean store in Freeport, Maine. Everybody in Maine owns a pair of the Bean boots (or, Maine Hunting Shoe). Those boots, like all Bean's products have a lifetime guarantee. The problem is that the soles of the boots are rubber and they do wear out.

Wearing through the heel of a boot over 3 years is NOT a problem with the product. It's a wear item. But, my sister would return her boots and complain.

Now, she could have gone in and said, "I'd like to have these resoled" and they would have probably done it for cheap.

She never did that. She would go in and say, "These wore out funny. I want a new pair."

For a long time, my daughter was doing it with her cell phone. She'd trip over the cord and send the phone flying into the plaster wall or she'd step on it and crack the screen. She'd always take it back to the store and complain "The screen cracked."

Never, "I cracked this screen," and demand a new phone. Back when phones were reasonably cheap, she got away with this but, I think the phone companies got wise to it and started offering replacement plans so, the last time she smashed her phone, her only option was to take her mom's old blackberry and, she's been using it until she's eligible for a free upgrade.

In the shipping notification email. Not always, but often, it says "guaranteed".

Hello XXXXX XXXXX,

Thank you for shopping with us. We thought you'd like to know that we shipped your item, and that this completes your order. Your order is on its way, and can no longer be changed. If you need to return an item from this shipment or manage other orders, please visit Your Orders on Amazon.com.

You should care when you are paying for a premium service that guarantees that delivery time. OP was refunded 1/8th of his entire year of Prime cost. If you are frugal, I'd say it's worth the small investment of time.

That's how I feel as well. There's been a few times when the item arrived 1 day later, and it was no big deal. Once I ordered a gift and needed it within the 2 days and it was late, so I let them know about that one. They were very apologetic and gave me a credit.

Amazon has outstanding customer service and understands that happy customers = repeat customers. So sad how many other companies don't get this.

People are probably considering it "cheap" as opposed to "frugal". I think that's ridiculous, though. They're under contract with you, which you have paid for, to receive items in two days guaranteed.

I personally have never received an item past the two day mark - in fact the other day I even got something same day - ordered around 0800 and it was there when I got home from work at 1900. But you bet your ass that I'd contact them if it didn't get there in two days, polar vortexes be damned.

I consider it being frugal even if you're paying more for something but are getting a valuable service.

In the case of Amazon Prime I think you are getting a valuable service, provided that service is being met every time. It's entirely frugal to do what OP is doing, because if Amazon can't meet their guarantee it means it's not worth it to pay for Prime, which means it's not frugal.

I'm torn on the idea but to play devil's advocate, I think most good things end because of this type of behavior. You can keep asking for $5 every time they are late. Eventually they will divide all the $5 by the number of prime subscribers and increase the prime fee. Recently it became harder to send things back if you don't have a good reason. Probably because it was being abused. They also designated a lot of items as "add on", because people were ordering $2 stuff for 2 day delivery.

Sure you can do it, but don't think it is free or frugal. Eventually you will pay for it.

But the thing is that Prime costs $7 per month. I don't mind if it's a day late or so but the last Prime item I ordered took more than a week to get here and it was something I needed for a repair and was counting on having within 2-3 days.

Their support is great though and I got an account credit when I contacted them. I don't think that makes me an impatient cheap asshole since I didn't get what I'm paying for.

I realize Prime also gives you access to their streaming content so some people just see the free 2-day shipping thing as an extra, but I signed up strictly to save on shipping.

I love their customer service. Every time I've had to contact them about something they have been very nice. They even let me return a book that I accidentally bought on my Kindle (by accidentally clicking the one-click button).

Since packages are tracked and establish a paper trail of delivery date and time, wouldn't Amazon have the capacity to make the entire reimbursement process somewhat automated? Or are they at least slightly hedging their bets that a certain percentage of people will just say "oh well"?

Well, the worst happened, the shipper delivered to the wrong address. Amazon is going to provide an extra month of PRIME membership (which is fair to me). They ask me what I desired and told them that $100 would be great, but asked what is the policy. He stated the policy and I accepted the extra month of PRIME service and refunded my purchase. They have to go back for the product. All the folks out there that don't think this is fair, think again. This is business folks, you paid for the service. If you let businesses get away with this even if it isn't Amazon, then they will continue the practice. I think Amazon is a great company. I have since they started to do business. But business is business. Hold them to the fire, other wise your PRIME membership is worthless

I live near a major warehouse. I often get my 2 day shipments in one day. So it balances out if something takes a little longer. I certainly don't blame Amazon if a shipment is late, that would be UP S'S fault.

I too live near a warehouse (two actually), but I still only get packages in 2 days. One time I paid for next day shipping since I was having it delivered to my job and had a day off on the second day. Figured $4 was worth it. Due to the USPS losing it in the next state over despite being shipped out of my local warehouse I ended up spending the whole weekend with Amazon's support and got about $10 in credit after repeated promises of delivery before it was considered lost and they reshipped it. With shit like this trust me when I say Amazon -wants- to hear about this because when it comes to contract negotiations and reviews they bring this stuff up with their various shippers to ensure customers are being treated right. Also the free month of prime or $5 credit is chump change for them in the long run as it gets written off their taxes.

The only time I've been bothered enough to do this is when a package with next-day shipping was slated to arrive December 20th and didn't arrive until the 27th. It was a Christmas gift, so this was a problem. Amazon refunded the shipping and offered me a $20 credit. Any other time, I can handle waiting a day or two extra.

I did this once and got a free table out of it (~55 dollar value). However, this Christmas I ordered something that I thought would arrive on the 23rd with Prime. It ended up getting here one time, the 24th, but I would have felt bad complaining since it was due to UPS' air fleet delayed due to ice, storms, and being over capacity.

I bought something the other day and it was shipped UPS SurePost. UPS manages to get the package in my relatively small town the next morning and then they hand it off to USPS a few hours later. USPS scans it the next day and immediately marks it for delivery (around 4 PM). One minute before the 8:00 PM deadline they mark it as not home / note left.

I always have to go get it from the Post Office as they never attempt to actually deliver it. This happens quite a bit, but since USPS flags it as out for delivery within the guaranteed time frame, I don't apply.

If I need a computer part in a hurry, I'll just use my American Express at Newegg as you can get free ShopRunner from them.

You just gotta be careful with being banned off of Amazon. If you're being that annoying customer pestering their customer service for discounts or money back every single time, you will get banned. It's not a matter of if, but when. You can check out CheapAssGamer forums for lots of people that get banned because they're being frugal.

And as far as I know, there's no way to get around this unless you proxy everything through a friend or family member. If Amazon doesn't want you buying from them, they're very good at not letting you buy from them. Just a heads up.

Apparently a lot of delivery providers, like UPS and FedEx, do this thing where they deliver to your local post office instead of to your house. This way they can get there within 2 days or whatever, but it may still take longer for it to reach you (especially on a weekend).

I ordered around 20 items with Prime in the past 30 days. A third of those took longer to arrive than promised. By 'promised' I mean the date listed on 'Order within X hours to get this by'.

This caused me several problems. First, I sent a bunch of gifts to cousins slated to arrive while I was there. While Amazon promised they'd be there by Saturday, most arrived on Monday. One item even arrived on Tuesday. I'd left by then since I had to get back to work on Monday.

Something similar happened when I was on vacation during the holiday season. I went on a bunch of 2-3 day road trips. Since Amazon missed their guaranteed delivery date, the packages ended up on my porch freezing the whole time. Not to mention anyone could have stolen those. One of the packages meant for my dad arrived the day after he flew back. This was 2 days later than Amazon promised. I had to pay $16 to ship it to him.

Finally, I ordered a bunch of chocolates and it arrived with the packaging partially ripped. I contacted Amazon on chat. The rep thanked me for letting them know, and said that she'll ask their packaging department to do a better job on future orders. No credit or refund for me though.

Two day shipping is a lie just like instant oatmeal. It still takes 5 mins longer to cook than promised.

Sorry you are getting blow back, but this is a brilliant tip. For $80 a year the items that are listed as deliverable in 2 days, should arrive in 2 days. If they can't fulfill that promise, they shouldn't be listed as such. People that live outside this area where the 2 day promise can't happen should have never had their $80 dollars accepted in the first place. (Amazon has more than enough data on everyone and everything involved in getting a package from A to B)

Since you brought up pricing I feel obligated to throw in these frugal facts: Amazon student is $39 a year if you have a .edu account. I'm currently two months into a prime membership and have already recouped my costs in terms of saving on shipping. PLUS I've been given an extra two months for late packages.

Yeah, I was upset when my dog food (which I needed within two days) didn't reach us until a week after. On the listing it said, "order within the next x x hours and get it by Thurs., Jan. 16th" I assume this is what you're talking about because I DID order it with the hopes it would arrive within two days.

If you're ordering dog food of of the internet, you should give yourself more than a two-day window. Regardless of anyone's 'guarantee', there are any number of things that could happen to your delivery along the way that are completely beyond Amazon's control. Hell, the delivery get in a car accident a block from your house.

I mean, you would depend on that same guarantee if it were baby food, would you?

Well it shouldn't matter, if there's a guarantee. You can bet your ass that if you guaranteed payment to some company, Amazon included, by a certain date and were a couple days late about it, they'd tack on a service fee or whatever charges they could get away with. Same principle.

Yeah I've done the same thing, although not for as many months, but I was credited a free month of Prime. It's especially not shitty considering the reason that the shipments are late. They've started using something called UPS sure ship where UPS sends you package to your local post carrier and then they deliver it, which in my experience always ends up with them missing the shipping date. They made this switch purely for cost reasons. Fuck that, I'd rather pay $100 a year and have a service that actually works than pay $80 for something that's unreliable.

I ordered like 13 items over 7 shipments and about 5 of em are past the date.

One item, god knows where it was delivered, but it sure wasn't my apartment or complex. When I let them know, they sent it again at one day shipping, and I haven't been able to pick it up yet due to work or school, but I truly appreciated their urgency. I would've accepted two day shipping, tbh.

Man I rarely ever get my packages within two days. Sometimes it's been almost a week before I get anything. I never say anything because to me it's free shipping. My dad pays for the account and added me as a guest. Maybe I should say something, hmmm

I agree completely. One time I had a prime shipment sent through some UPS system where they deliver it to the post office and the post office conducts the final delivery. BS. It made it to the post office on the 2-day mark, and the package was listed as "delivered on the tracking pages, but it took an extra day to get to me.

Two days is two days.

I also had a package sent back automatically because it arrived a day late, and I couldn't postpone a vacation to wait for it.

I've been a Prime subscriber for a few years, and my packages almost always come on time, but I always do contact customer service when they arrive late. The biggest reason for me, is because they say "guaranteed delivery date", not "estimated delivery date".

Here in the UK, prime is "guaranteed next day delivery if ordered by 1pm". If I don't really need it desperately I let it slide if they're a day or so late, but it can be very frustrating if you've ordered from them thinking they will be fast (I'm a bit of a last minute panic shopper sometimes). If you've ordered to save time but then have to rush out to the shop because they haven't delivered then it's fair to tell them!

I agree with you. This happened to my husband last month. I just ordered something at the beginning of the week. The time of arrival is saying some time next week. I was going to get on tonight and talk to them again.

If they promise something, they should follow through. Since their sellers are representing them, the sellers should be held accountable too.

I've only had an issue once & the order had a bunch of small stuff that added up to about $70. They used OnTrac it showed no progress after like 3 or 4 days for a 2 day shipment. Complained & wasn't looking to get the items free but they decided to just refund me in full. The next day I got my shipment essentially for free. Will definitely renew my subscription next year.

They gave me $20 credit for a Christmas present that got there two days late. On the other hand, I had a school book come a day late but didn't get anything. Still, it's worth asking them. They even gave me a refund on a movie rental because "the quality was bad" but I hadn't complain (the quality was completely fine).